By now, most of us are familiar with the usual water-saving tips: don’t leave water running unnecessarily, time your showers, install low-flow shower heads and resist the urge to unnecessarily water the lawn or wash the car.

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You recycle, ride a bike to work, and buy organic food. You pay extra for "green" electricity and have an eco-friendly car. So can you rest easy, with a clean conscience that your life is as sustainable as it can reasonably be?

Well ... although many of us try our best to minimize environmental impacts, our actions don't always achieve as much as we believe.

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The Fourth of July is right around the corner! Summer’s hottest holiday will no doubt call for backyard barbecuing, fireworks and maybe even a dip in the pool.

Here’s how to throw a little green into your mix of red, white and blue.

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Still haven’t found the perfect present for Father’s Day? We’ve found seven eco-friendly gifts for all kinds of tastes for all kinds of budgets.

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Sixty percent of the rubber consumed in the United States is used to make tires. Raw materials used to make tires include rubber (41 percent), carbon black (28 percent), steel (15 percent) and other materials (16 percent).

In 2008, 290 million new tires were shipped for use by cars and trucks. Of these, 80 percent were for passenger cars and 20 percent were for trucks. In addition, 20 percent were "original equipment" tires and 80 percent replaced used tires. Tire shipments have declined for the last two years.

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While single-use plastic shopping bags are nearing ubiquity in American retail stores, carryout restaurants and grocers, many local governments and organizations are looking to find ways to keep the bags from becoming litter. Two very different approaches are being examined right now — increase recycling of the bags, or ban their use all together.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of imagery of the Pacific Garbage Patch and impacts on wildlife. Local governments wanted to do something,” said Carol Misseldine, coordinator of Green Cities California. “Local governments wanted to do something.”

The coalition of 10 local governments collects environmental laws, studies and practices from across the state and offers them as sample legislation for other jurisdictions. The group recently issued its Master Environmental Assessment on single-use and reusable bags.

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Summer is nearly upon us, and now is the perfect time to start planning your warm weather getaways. No matter where you live, a hidden gem of a mountain to hike, lake to kayak or beach to lounge on likely lies no more than a few hours away.

Even for the most budget-conscious urban dweller, there are many ways to enjoy one's natural surroundings without breaking the bank.

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If your current air conditioner is more than eight years old, it's time for a new one. Over the life of the product, the amount you'll save in energy bills will more than likely exceed the cost of the new unit.

Click here for basic criteria to use when choosing a new system

No matter where you fall on the “green” spectrum, whether you’re an avid environmentalist or simply in your initial research phase, it’s hard to deny that composting is becoming the talk of the town.

Composting is often considered one of the most effective sustainable activities, essentially creating a “recycling” system for food scraps and yard waste in your own backyard.

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College students living in campus dorms respond well to  recycling campaigns that include social media, researchers in North Carolina  found.The study was conducted at the University of North Carolina Charlotte by the  university´s Waste Reduction Office, the NCDNR Division of Pollution  Prevention and Environmental Assistance and Mecklenburg County Land Use and  Environmental Services Solid Waste Division.

Over a four week period, researchers  tracked students at three dormitories while conducting a recycling awareness  campaign that included social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Youtube  pages. The study was aimed at increasing recycling rates and creating  positive attitudes towards recycling, according to the university.

Periodic  reminders might be the key to getting college students to recycle more, the authors  of the report wrote. "The majority felt they possessed sufficient recycling  knowledge and just forget to do it," the report states. Students were  surveyed before and after the program to determine attitudes toward recycling.

Most students said they didn´t recycle due to "Not thinking about it" or inconvenience of drop off bins. Students at Cedar and Hickory residence halls on  the UNC-Charlotte campus increased their recycling habits significantly  during the study, the authors report. Cedar students increased their recycling  from 51 pounds of bottles, cans and paper to 129 pounds. Students in Hickory  increased their collections from 46 pounds to 106. The largest recycling  hall, Sycamore, decreased from 113 pounds to 108 pounds during the study.

Bottles were the most-recycled material on campus, with paper coming in second.

Now that April (aka Earth Month), is in full swing, it's the perfect time to get moving with your eco-fabulous resolutions.

But the prospect of where to begin can be daunting, especially when you factor in the myths floating around about reasons not to shift your behavior towards that which is more eco-conscious. So enjoy Earth Month to its fullest and don't be fooled by these six eco-myths.

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There’s nothing we love more than great weather, sunlight and the perfect excuse to get back to nature.

We won’t bore you with those expected metaphors of spring and new beginnings. Instead, we’ve made a detailed of list of simple changes you can make this month that not only reduce your impact, but can also actually save you money.

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A lot of people just don’t recycle. While there may be a temptation to imagine them as conspiring Earth Haters who take orders directly from Skeletor, they are usually normal people who try to contribute positively to society in other ways.

They are members of our family, our neighbors and our friends. So what makes them choose to bypass the blue bin?

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San Francisco made history when it became the first city to officially ban plastic shopping bags in 2007, making it a pioneer of a rapidly growing trend – the outlawing of common to-go plastic products, such as bags and foam polystyrene containers.

In many cases, the main objective when passing these types of bans or fees is to ultimately reduce the amount of litter.

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The Greener Gadgets event in New York City was a stark contrast to its Las Vegas counterpart, the Consumer Electronics Show. The venue was vastly smaller, the visual appeal was significantly absent, and the huge techie crowd was lacking (but we'll blame that on the snowstorm).

But there was one compelling dissimilarity about Greener Gadgets, and it was perhaps the reason we made the cross-country trip: undiscovered ingenuity.

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Photos go to relatives and the knickknacks might go to a garage sale, but who wants to deal with the array of unused pills when grandma passes away?
Manufacturers are offering discounts, as well as Wal-Mart, on medications.

Some politicians do.

In the last year, state legislators across the country have proposed bills aimed at curbing the disposal of unused medication.

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Every now and then we like to take a break from the big news headlines and explore the creative world. We know you love crafts, perhaps almost as much as you love recycling.

We tried to think of an abundant resource that you regularly toss, and plastic was the first thing to come to mind. While we highly tout recycling all types of resins, we also love getting our hands dirty and making really cool stuff out of those bags under the sink or those bottles in the fridge.

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There’s old tech gear under beds and in boxes all over my house. I know better than to throw all that e-waste in the trash, where it would eventually pollute the planet. And I also know that when it comes to tech disposal, time is of the essence. My cast-off cell phone or laptop could help someone less fortunate and even net a little cash too−but only if I act reasonably quickly. Any yet despite all this knowledge, my digital detritus piles up.

This year, though, my daughter’s fifth grade class wants to raise money to make their soon-to-be built school building “green.” Finally, the push I needed− clearing out my tech clutter could help me support Ava’s well-intentioned fundraising.

First stop: Gazelle. Since 2008, this socially conscious company has been helping people collect money for unwanted tech gear, guaranteeing to sell it for reuse or recycle it responsibility. Enter the particulars about your ex-gear and a cash bid pops up on-screen. If you like the figure, download a free shipping label, drop the item in the mail and wait for your check. Simple! Recently, Gazelle launched a service called Gazelle for Good that allows individuals or organizations to fundraise online with what they call a Gadget Drive.

So I went to gazelleforgood.com. It took maybe 10 minutes to create a customized donation page for my daughter’s school. The site works just like Gazelle except it also announces our cash goal and displays a thermometer that shows our progress. We can promote our cause with just a few keystrokes by e-mailing links to our homepage and printing flyers to post on bulletin boards.

That ancient desktop my son, Cole (now 13), used in first grade will net only about $6, but Gazelle will pay for the shopping and keep the parts out of the landfill. The digital camera I haven’t touched since I upgraded will snag $43, Cole’s old cell phone $24 and my old Palm PDA $83. While I’m shipping all this off, I’ll throw some old orphaned cables and broken keyboards. As long as I’m selling some of value, Gazelle will recycle everything.

It might be hard to write a check in this economy, but it sure is easy (not to mention satisfying!) to ship all this stuff that was just taking up space.

By Christina Tynan - Wood of Family Circle Magazine, March 2010 Edition

A few weeks ago, Earth911 investigated some of the lesser known recyclables. Sure, they don't receive as much media attention as some of their co-stars like the plastic bottle or the aluminum can, but your massive response to "I Didn't Know That Was Recyclable!" proved that there is an outcry to dispose of those odd items.

From paint and batteries to wine corks and hair (really!), a little patience (and a search on Earth911.com) can make recycling these items a little easier. The list of qualified recycling candidates was long, so we figured we would feature a few more.

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A New Orleans garbage man is the subject of a new reality show appearing on TLC next week.

Sidney Torres started his SDT Waste and Debris after Hurricane Katrina struck the city and now operates more than 150 trucks and has 180 employees.

An hour-long pilot of the show featuring his company, "Trashmen," is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time on Feb. 11.

The show will feature Torres and his company’s efforts to clean up during a particularly busy weekend that featured Halloween weekend festivities, the Voo Doo Fest annual outdoor concert, and after a Monday Night Football game featuring the New Orleans Saints.

Ratings for "Trashmen" will determine whether the show is picked up for additional episodes, Torres said.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection says it now has enough evidence to prove that unwanted prescription drugs being tossed into local landfills pose a threat to surface and groundwater supplies around the state. New test results of leachate at three Maine landfills show high concentrations of a wide range of pharmaceuticals. And the findings are likely to boost support for a bill to require drug companies to collect and dispose of unused medication.

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We know it's not spring yet, and you're still donning that oversize wool coat and chunky scarf. But we admit that we are still in a post-holiday funk and are in serious need of some organization and motivation.

So we took a room-by-room tour around our own homes to find the solutions the your biggest clutter conundrums, disposal dilemmas and decorating difficulties.

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Let's say you want to recycle organic waste but have no interest in starting a compost pile in the backyard. There's an app for that, an environmental application known as commercial composting.

Chances are you've contributed to commercial compost in the past without even realizing it. Common applications of compost include curbside green waste collection programs and Christmas tree mulching.

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Why does it all even matter? We’ve all been there for the probing questions that follow habitual green activities or beliefs. While you know why you do it, it may be hard to articulate when you’re “under the gun,” so to speak.

Whether it’s lack of information, or just a twisted tongue, we’ve got your stock replies ready for those pesky environmental questions.

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Larraine Roulston writes children’s books and once volunteered with a puppet show.

But make no mistake, she is quite serious about the topic of composting.

It’s just that Roulston uses children’s literature to promote what she said she believes is an important aspect of waste management.

The Havelock, Ontario, resident is currently working on her fifth children’s book about composting and has spent the last 20 years trumpeting the cause.

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Get out the packing boxes and old newspaper - it's time to clean up your holidays!

What a whirlwind season it's been. With everything that happened in 2009, 2010 is sure to be another monumental year for all things green.

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With the start of a new year comes hope and change and most importantly, opportunity. In reaction to such inspiring settings, most of us turn to the old pad and pen to set up our course for the next year. So, what is on your list?

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As you get ready to undeck the halls, here are a few helpful tips to guarantee your Christmas tree doesn't end up in a landfill. Considering the EPA estimates 20 percent of our municipal solid waste is already organic, it's worth the time to properly dispose of your tree.

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Regardless of what you put in your oven or your mouth, cooking is usually a holiday staple. But along with cooking, waste isn't usually far behind. From leftover food to left-open refrigerators, waste is all around us as we prepare the treats that make your holiday dinner party a hit.

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Marcal Manufacturing LLC, which makes 100% recycled tissue products, is offering free lesson plans to help teach students about recycling.

The lesson plans are available at www.marcalsmallsteps.com/recycling-lesson-plans.html.

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We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't share some handy tips for reducing, reusing and recycling over the holiday season. Here are some of our favorites:

• When you are looking for gifts, look for recycled content items and/or items with minimal packaging. Consider buying re-useable grocery bags as gifts & "wrapping" them in one of the bags!
• If you don't have enough dinnerware to feed everyone in your expected crowd, go to Goodwill and purchase inexpensive dinnerware instead of using paper & plastic. Mix & match is in!
• Gifts don't always have to come in boxes! You can purchase gift memberships for friends and family or make donations to worthy charities (like the IRC!) on their behalves.
• Make composting one of your New Year's resolutions. VERY few Hoosiers compost even though it's easy, great for gardens and will help you save on trash bags, not to mention reduce your carbon footprint. For more information on composting, click here.

Recycle whatever you can!

The recyclable items at a typical holiday dinner would save enough electricity to run the television for all of the holiday's football games!

Happy Holidays!

http://www.indianarecycling.org/

Still haven’t found the perfect present for those hard-to-shop-for recipients? We have compiled 10 must-have gifts for every person on your list.

From recycled materials to fair trade practices, you can be sure that your gifts will bring smiles without compromising your earth-friendly aspirations for a green holiday season.

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The average, unweatherized U.S. home leaks air at a rate equivalent to a 4-square-foot hole in the wall, according to the " Solar Living Sourcebook" by John Schaeffer. And with the residential sector consuming 35 percent of available energy to consumers, reducing our use of this costly resource can result in big savings.

So what should you do to prevent wasting your hard-earned cash on leaks? Check out our handy guide to weatherizing your home.

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The holiday season is officially in full-swing, and Thanksgiving marks the beginning of big family dinners, extensive gift shopping and elaborate decorations.

But the season isn’t all turkey, stuffing and pie. According to RecycleWorks, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent.

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We’re Green
Many see printers as bad guys who produce paper-based documents as an energy hogging, landfill-clogging, waste-producing industry that needs to be replaced by cleaner, more efficient electronic media.

But are we?

Despite all the hype about electronic media being "greener" than print, the opposite may be true. Electronic media are huge consumers of energy. When you consider that the paper industry is one of the largest consumers of clean energy like wind power, the tables may actually be turned.

In a recent publication, "Pixels or Paper?", International Paper wrote: The printing industry is one of the biggest users of renewable, low-carbon energy in the world. Sixty percent of the energy used to make paper in the U.S. comes from carbon-neutral renewable resources and is produced on site at mills. In addition, these facilities use combined heat and power (CHP) generation systems, which are 80-90% efficient. Fossil fuel use and purchased energy in this industry is steadily decreasing.

Taking only the servers that power the Internet as a comparison, the electronics industry uses more than 90% fossil fuels purchased off the grid, which are greenhouse gas emitting. The conventional power-generation systems used are only 45-60% efficient. And the consumption rate for data centers in the U.S. alone doubled from 2000-2006 and is set to double again in 2010.

The printing industry is increasingly "green." Our presses are highly efficient. We use recycled paper. We use vegetable-based inks. Even many of today’s plastics and coatings are recyclable. Today’s digital presses and consumables containers are made from recyclable components. E-media may not produce a tangible product, but this doesn’t make it green.

www.printingcreations.com
765.759.8585

As November kicks off, football season is in full swing as NFL stadiums average nearly 100,000 fans at each game. While that's a lot of hot dog buns and foam fingers, it also adds up to a lot of waste. And although more stadiums offer recycling, most of us don't bring our party waste into the game for disposal.

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I Got Worms! Composting & You
As Lloyd Christmas so profoundly shouted "I got worms!" in the comedy classic Dumb and Dumber, having worms isn't as bad as it may sound. Though he was referring to the name of his worm store, we are referring to vermicomposting.

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Now that Halloween is over and you're ready to move onto the next holiday, consider yourself prepared to answer the question: What will you do with your costume, decor and more anyway?

Well, finding out what to do with your pumpkin after Halloween is the easy part.

And reusing your decorations year to year is a no-brainer. In fact, Americans buy nearly $1.58 billion worth of Halloween decorations each year.

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Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, Samhain - whatever you may call the 31st day of October, the traditions of both tricks (and treats) enchant imaginations around the world on this haunted evening.

To add to the array of creepy costumes, ominous decor and an unearthly consumption of sweet treats, we think it only fitting to provide some spine-chilling facts and tips about the wicked fun of going green on All Hallow's Eve... and beyond.

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The solution used to be easy: Just drag out the rake, make a giant leaf pile, and either burn the waste or dump it at the curbside for the garbage collectors.

But now, in most places, such methods are illegal. That's because landfill space is shrinking, and burning leaves can be dangerous to our health.

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Do you find yourself checking the green labels on products before purchasing them?

They validate social and environmental concerns for both businesses and consumers, promising everything from healthier food to better stewardship of the land. With nearly 400 certifications worldwide, it can be difficult to understand what each one means and distinguish between legitimate seals of approval and marketing schemes.

BBMG, a branding and integrated marketing agency, recently released a Conscious Consumer Report. They tested 13 of the seals to see how 2,000 adults responded, in terms of recognition and alliance. Here are the 10 most recognizable labels, according to that study:.

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Luckily, whether you call a small space home or work in an office that could double as a closet, there are many ways to make the most out of your tight quarters. And, no matter the size of the space you're working with, there are always plenty of opportunities to add some green to your décor.

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As a result, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has recently been cracking down on how they're transported. This includes collection points, battery recyclers and anyone involved in sending used batteries from Point A to Point B.

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8 Ways Gadgets Have Gone Green
Flash back to 1989: Did we ever imagine a world in which we carried in our pockets palm-sized devices that connected us to everything from our friends to the Internet super-highway?

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Ever Wonder Why There are no string or tags?
 
Our unique pillow-style tea bag is the result of our commitment to doing what’s best for the environment.  Because these natural fiber tea bags don’t need strings, tags, staples or individual wrappers; we’re able to save more than 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year!

http://www.bigelowtea.com/

Whether it’s a bottle of baby aspirin in a cabinet above your kitchen sink or a shelf of prescriptions on the bathroom shelf,  medication is a common household item.

In fact, a Maine Department of Environmental Protection study says the use of over-the-counter medications has risen 60 percent since the 1990s.

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As many people know, reuse is a step up from recycling. In fact, reuse is the middle-man between reduce and recycle, and some would be surprised at how many opportunities for reuse there really are – once you start looking for them.

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Going back to school is an exciting time because everything's new — teachers, fellow students, supplies. However, it's not very green to buy a whole new package of markers when last year's set works just fine. In addition to reusing old supplies, we've got a great list of ways to be as green as can be in the new school year.

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Don’t be fooled: Even if Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” has been playing nonstop lately, the beginning of another school year is quickly approaching.

Back to school is the perfect time not only for digging out that alarm clock, but also for adopting some greener habits you and your whole family can practice all year long. Below are eight tips worthy of a gold—or green—star.

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Want to save about 3,000 gallons of water per year? It's as easy as turning off the tap when you brush your teeth or shave. Once you've got that down, look for creative ways to use less water, such as washing fruits and vegetables in a bowl instead of running the tap. You might be surprised by how many water-saving opportunities you'll find!

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The CAR Allowance Rebate System (CARS) is a $1 billion government program that helps consumers buy or lease a more environmentally-friendly vehicle from a participating dealer when they trade in a less fuel-efficient car or truck. The program is designed to energize the economy; boost auto sales and put safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles on the nation's roadways.

http://www.cars.gov/

8 Ways to Make the Case

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Cool Off
Temperatures are heating up. Here are a few tips for how to stay cool this summer without racking up energy bills and a guilty conscience.

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With the American Clean Energy and Security Act making its way to the Senate after a narrow victory in the House, the fate of our relationship with carbon dioxide may soon be decided.

Of the various ways the bill looks to change the nature of how to deal with carbon emissions, cap-and-trade will form the basic structure if the landmark legislation is passed. In essence, the cap-and-trade system will distribute permits to pollute—at no cost initially—to any company that emits carbon dioxide (the cap).

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